The AudioNotch Tinnitus Treatment Blog

There’s a great deal of interesting research on tinnitus pitch matching – a term synonymous with tinnitus pitch detection, or “tinnitus tuning.” An important paper we’d like to bring to the attention of AudioNotch users is entitled “Comparison of manual and computer-automated procedures for tinnitus pitch-matching.” This paper has some very important lessons for those of us interested in matching our tinnitus pitch. Consider the following points culled from the paper’s abstract:

Three methods for tinnitus pitch-matching were performed in a group of 42 subjects. Two methods were computer-automated (Binary and Subject-Guided) and the third method as a traditional manual technique.

Each method provided excellent response reliability for about half of the subjects. The most reliable subjects, however, differed widely between the different methods. Each subject provided a total of 14 pitch matches using the three different methods. Analyses based on each subject’s total of 14 pitch matches revealed the range of pitch matches for each subject. About half of the subjects selected pitch matches over a range of 2 1/3 octaves.

Results of this study suggest that specifying the range of tinnitus pitch matches rather than attempting to identify a single pitch match may be more appropriate.

Thus, there are three things to be learned from this paper:

1. The method of tinnitus detection available on AudioNotch via our Tinnitus tuner is comparable to the “Subject-Guided” method in the paper, although we incorporate the aid of a visual cue (the slider bar) in order to provide a visual aid in the detection of tinnitus tones.
2. About half of AudioNotch users will have a straightforward, easy time detecting their tinnitus tone using the tuner (however, because the tone can shift during the course of therapy, it is still necessary to re-tune a user’s tone periodically)
3. About half of AudioNotch users will have a more challenging time detecting their tinnitus tone. For these individuals, an approximate match of their tinnitus pitch will suffice (given that there is a margin for error).